Progress

''Ssssgh.....Fuuuuuuuh''

*PAM*

''Shit!''

On a large island within East Blue, a cute little girl with pink hair is training her aim with a bow while cursing....a lot.

''I almost got it! God fucking damn it!'' The little girl rages.

She threw the bow on the ground with force to relieve a little of her anger, ''Shit! After ten days trying to hit ten arrows, I can only hit eight shots in the center of the tree!'' Frustrated, the little girl sits on the floor while breathing slowly, to try to calm herself.

As she calmed down, she didn't notice a person approaching where she was, stopping next to her.

''I don't know why.....you're in such a hurry, your progress is already.....very fast.'' Said the person next to her.

''I know, Sister Cecily, I just .... I feel frustrated, there are so many people much stronger than me out there, and I feel that if I don't progress fast, I will just stay behind, and it's not fun to be the loser....''

Sister Cecily looked the girl with confused eyes, 'She is already progressing fast, too fast actually. She may be a little stupid, but she is a genius when it comes to train. Even with this alarming progress she is not satisfied, what is she so afraid of?' She thought.

What Sister Cecily meant by genius, is that Freya's progress is not even a little normal. The training she is doing is not easy, in fact it is hell, because every day, even without having hit ten arrows, Cecily made Freya took two more steps away from the tree, making her accuracy even more difficult.

At first she continued to miss the target, but then in the following days she started hitting one, two, three, four, until she hit eight arrows in the center of the tree at thirty-five steps away from the tree, all this in ten days!

And she had to change bows twice, as each bow has a limit on how much force you can put on the string, limiting the distance the arrow can travel.

Not only that, even with her bow training, Cecily still made her train her body with the stone bags, and each day she ate more and more quantities of food, this progress is not normal. It is as if her body was made to train, it didn't make sense, but it was the only thing she could think of as an answer.

Freya sighs, ''I miss patting Kenya's head...''

''...''

''Five days.'' Cecily says.

''Eh?'' Freya raises her head in confusion.

''I will give you....five days to go to church....after that, you will come back.....and finish your training.''

Cecily could see the longing and sadness in Freya's eyes and decided to give her a few days of rest, because Freya's look is the same as she herself always had, her only friend is the Head Nun. And she only visits her once per week, and only when she can.

And while training is important, so is having leisure time, especially with friends.

''Eeeeeeh?! Really?!'' Freya made a surprised and excited face.

''....Yes.''

''Yosha! Thank you sister Cecily, I love you!'' Getting emocional because of the situation, Freya suddenly jumped up, kissed the Sister on the cheek and ran towards the church.

''....''

''Tsk....what a troublesome child.'' She tried to look annoyed, but unfortunately her flushed cheeks exposes her embarrassment.

.

. (Scene change)

.

Arriving at the church, Freya entered and went straight to the dorm, but there was no sign of Kenya, so she ran to the classroom.

''Kenya, are you here?!''

Opening the door, she looked around for her friend, but without finding her. Luckily, there was someone in the room sitting in the professor's chair while reading some papers.

''Oh? Arara, it's good to see you with so much energy Freya, are you looking for Kenya?''

''Yes! Did you see her by chance, Sister Lucyna?''

''If she is not in the dorm, she should be in the kitchen, after you left to study with Sister Cecily, she almost never leaves there, I wonder why?'' Lucyna says making a thoughtful expression with her hand on the cheek.

''Thanks Sister Lucyna, and its good to see you too!''

Freya said goodbye and quickly ran to the kitchen. Lucyna just waved her hand while thinking 'Ah, youth!'

Arriving in the kitchen, she finally sees her friend concentrating on cooking.

''Kenya!'' Freya yells excitedly.

Kenya, who was cooking, was startled by Freya's scream and quickly turned around, ''E-Eh?! F-Freya?''

Freya ran to her friend, and immediately started patting her head ''Ohhh, that's it, that's what I was waiting for! I missed this feeling!''

Freya stroked Kenya's head vigorously, as if it were some sort of addictive drug.

''O-Oeh?! W-Why are you here? Didn't you have another month with Sister Cecily?'' Kenya asked in confusion.

''Yes, but she decided to give me a break, why? You're not happy to see me? You started to dislike me now?'' Freya says with a fake sad face.

''I-Its not like that!'' Kenya started to panic, thinking that Freya might start to hate her.

''Oya, what an exciting reunion we have here in the middle of the kitchen, fufufu!'' A third person who was present in the kitchen commented while having an amused smile on her face.

''Ah, Sister Ina, I hadn't seen you, hello!'' Freya responds.

Freya always greets Sister Ina with a big smile on her face, after all, she makes delicious food, and everyone loves people who make delicious food.

''Hello, little Freya. It's good to play around, but don't intimidate Kenya too much, she can misunderstand what you say.'' Sister Ina advertise her.

''I know, I was just kidding. Don't take this seriously Kenya, I would never hate you!''

How could she hate Kenya? She is her first and only friend in this world.

''I-Its alright...hehe.''

''Oh, right. Why are you staying in the kitchen for so long after I leaved? Sister Lucyna looks concerned.'' Freya was not concerned as Sister Lucyna, she was just curious to know, Kenya had never done that before.

''E-Eh?! T-Thats...hmm..s-secret! Yes! Its a secret!''Kenya started to panic again, but this time with a blushed face.

''Eeeeeh? You can't tell me? Why not?'' Freya said pouting.

''T-That's.....'' Kenya really wanted to say, Freya pouting was cute, but she wanted to make a surprise, so she held herself back from saying.

''MahMah, Kenya, there's no point in hiding what you're planning now, right?'' Sister Ina says, wanting to put an end to this situation, after all they are in the middle of the kitchen.

''What do you mean?''

''Kenya is studying with me, she has learned a lot, honestly, she is like a sponge, she learns everything you throw at her, and during those days, I was teaching her how to make a cake, she wanted to make a surprise birthday cake, for your birthday and hers, after all, your birthday's is in the same month.'' She explains

''Now that I think about it, your birthday is only a few days before mine. But a cake huh? As I thought, you are amazing Kenya!'' Freya says and gave Kenya her biggest smile.

''O-Oeh?!'' That smile was like an arrow hitting Kenya's heart.

Kenya started to touch a finger on the other with a red face like a tomato, she couldn't hide the happy smile on her face.

''I-Its no-nothing, really.....hehe...'' She said softly, embarrassed.

''Now,kids, enough. You will have your love discussion somewhere else please, we are in the kitchen.'' Sister Ina says. She already lose patience with the pink and fluffy atmosphere around them, so she kicked them both out of the kitchen.

''Oh, right, let's go Kenya!''

''R-Right!''

Freya took Kenya's hand and ran out of the kitchen, heading towards the back garden.

Arriving at the back garden, Freya turned with a serious look, ''Kenya, I have something to say to you.'' She couldn't hold back what she wanted to say, because she wanted to say it to Kenya for a long time.

'E-Eh? A confession? I-I don't know if I'm ready yet! B-But I can't let this opportunity pass! My god, what do I do? But me and Freya....ehe....ehehe' Kenya thought in panic with a little bit of drool coming out of her mouth.

Freya closes her eyes for a moment and then opens them again. Kenya could see a flash of determination in Freya's eyes, she even freaked out a little.

'She is that serious about me?!' Kenya thought happily.

''Kenya, please join my Pirate crew!''

''.....Eh?''

—————————

-Kenya POV-

''Kenya, please join my Pirate crew!''

''...Eh?''

Hearing what she said, I froze.

'W-What? Pirate crew? isn't it a love confession? Eh? Eeeh? Why?! Wait, why does my Freya want to become a pirate in the first place?'

''Kenya.....''

'Aren't pirates the bad guys? Is Freya a bad girl? No! Freya is the purest and kindest person in the world! She could never be a bad girl!'

''Kenya...''

'B-But I don't care that she is a bad girl! I would accept her anyway.....now that I think about it, an bad girl Freya is also cute .... huhehehe.'

''KENYA!!''

''O-Oeh?! W-What?!'' Freya started to shake me, taking me out of my stupor.

''Are you okay?'' She says with a worried face.

''I'm fine, I was just ..... surprised.'' I cleaned the drool that started to run. I need to be more careful.

'Ugh, I can't say that I am disappointed and that I was waiting for a confession, but that would make her sad, and I hate to see Freya sad.' I thought.

''So....what is your answer? Do you want to join my future pirate crew?'' Freya was speaking with a low and hesitant voice, I could feel her fear, the fear that I would reject her.

Of course I accept, damn it, if you asked me to jump into a volcano together I would jump without thinking twice, but I need to know why she wants to become a pirate of all things.

''Freya, can I ask you a few things before answering?'' I says while looking into her sapphire blue eyes.

''Y-Yes Ma'am!'' She jumped a little with my answer. I could see that she was relieved, but she was still worried a little.

''Why....do you want to be a pirate?'' For the first time I was serious, and I didn't stutter even without being in the kitchen.

''Because it's fun! Think about what we can do as pirates! We can travel all over the world without worrying about anything, without laws, without stupid people telling us what to do, we can have several adventures in places that were only explored by the King of the Pirates!'' She respond trying to convince me. Not that she needed to, but she doesn't know that.

I was going to answer, but then I stopped.

'Wait, but aren't pirates really bad? Aren't they the ones who kill people? Who slaughter villages out of greed?' Thinking better about becoming a pirate, my conviction to join her faltered a little.

''I see....and after becoming a pirate, what are you going to do? Will you want to steal from people? Will you kill innocent people for fun and make children like us orphaned?''

Even though I love Freya wholeheartedly, just thinking that Freya can make children like us live without their parents love because of greed like pirates do, leaves me heartbroken.

''Eh? Of course not!'' Freya respond, looking insulted.

''I would never do that! I say pirate, but in fact we would be adventurers in a way, I don't want treasures, I want adventure! I want excitement! I want to fight with strong people! As for expenses, we can steal from evil pirates, after all, as a great man once said, 'A Thief who steals a thief, has a hundred years of forgiveness!'.''

''I don't know who said that.....but if you're not going to do anything that the evil pirates do, then I accept, I will join your crew.'' I'm relieved that I didn't misjudge Freya, she is still the kind and cute Freya I know.

''Eh?! Really?! Yes! First member crew obtained! With Kenya with me I will never eat food without flavor again!'' Freya said while jumping in hapiness and making a strange victory pose.

'Wait, that makes it look like we're married! I made the right choice! Good one me!' I thought.

''So, what's your plan? We are seven years old, we have no money, no ship and we do not even know how to navegate.''

''Do not worry! I have everything under control!'' Freya said with a proud pose, ''I will teach you some exercices to strengthen your body that Sister Cecily taught me, and I will share my future hunt with you. I also need to do something at Vila Cabulo, but I still have time, I say we will train until we are fifteen!''

Until fifteen? Why? Well, never mind, Freya obviously has a plan.

''About the ship and money I… well….we-we'll think about it later! It is better to focus on the present! Yeah!'' She started to sweat a little.

Freya is so smart! She thought about...almost everything, but thats okay, I'm with her now!

Now.....and forever, hehe!

—————————

|Time Skip -Ten days|

-Freya POV-

It has been ten days since Kenya agreed to join my future crew; In my five days off at the orphanage, I taught Kenya about corporal training, and we made plans for our future adventures. And five days ago I went back to Sister Cecily's hut and went back to training, but today is going to be my last day of training with her, because....

I draw my bowstring, aim and shoot with confidence. The arrow flies like lightning and hits the center of the target.

''Yes! I finally did it! I hit ten arrows in the center!'' I started jumping with joy when I saw the last arrow hitting the target.

''Good....job. I'm proud of you....Freya'' Sister Cecily said with a slight smile.

Knowing that she finally smiled and said my name makes me more proud than having hit ten shots, she always referred to me as 'Dumb kid'.

''Now you are prepared.....to have your first hunt. This is going to be your last training, I will not....help you. I'll give you.....until the sun goes down to bring me a animal....bigger than you, if you don't come back until the time is up....I won't look for you.''

From her face, I can say she is serious, and she didn't even give me time to rest, as expected of the Spartan Nun!

''Go.''

''Yes!'' I collected the arrows stuck in the trees and I went deeper into the forest, but I would not dare to cross the river, I don't want to die yet.

Getting deeper into the forest, I regulated my breathing, and started to focus on my hearing, looking for any sign of an animal. I headed towards the river, because it is there that the animals gather to quench their thirst.

I approached the area where the river is, I stopped and looked around, always regulating my breathing and taking care where I walk to not make any noise. Sister Cecily always hammered in my head that a true hunter never let his prey know that you are there.

With that in mind, I climbed a relatively large tree that was close to me, lodged on a branch, and waited for my prey.

I stayed on top of the tree for almost an hour, when I saw the first animal appear. But unfortunately, it was a smaller animal than me, and the goal was to bring an animal bigger than me.

''Tsk, this will take a while.''

—————————

I've been on the tree for a long time, several animals have passed, but none relatively large. Luckily I still have plenty of time until the sun goes down, and since I have a large area of ​​vision on the top of this tree, I didn't have to move from here.

But after a long time, I was almost giving up on staying in this place, until I heard a noise close by.

It was a hoarse, loud sound, and from the sound I already know what it is.

Following the sound, I could identify the animal, and I was right. It was a huge boar with big fangs, its fur is dark brown and its eyes are red as if it were a crazy animal.

''Oh shit, this guy looks really scary, but it's far from the level of that Gorilla and Anaconda. Hehe, feel honored, piggy, you were chosen as my first hunt.'' My eyes shone with anticipation, I was already imagining Kenya roasting that pig with various spices.

Wiping a little drool out of my mouth, I took an arrow out of the quiver and fitted it to my bow. The boar was coming towards the tree I was standing in, because passing the tree a little further on, its where the river is.

'It really was worth waiting so long here, I'm so smart!' I thought, proud of myself.

I aimed and prepared the bow, I was just waiting for the Boar to get closer. The closer the target, the less is the chance of making a mistake.

'Come here, piggy, piggy...twenty meters, nineteen meters, eighteen meters, seventeen meters....'

When the boar reached ten meters near the tree, I shot.

The arrow flew perfectly and hit the Boar's head, which wept pitifully, and then fell dead to the ground.